Health department closes Kalico Kitchen due to violations

Tuesday

Dec 17, 2013 at 1:05 PMDec 17, 2013 at 1:06 PM

By Annette.Manwell@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4270

The Kalico Kitchen in Douglas has closed, according to its owner.Catherine Wilt, owner of the Kalico Kitchen, confirmed Monday that the Allegan County Health Department closed the restaurant last week and said she will try to sell it.Wilt said an inspector came into the restaurant last week for a reinspection and closed the doors. Wilt did not say what the violations were and the Allegan County Health inspector did not immediately return requests for comment.Over the weekend, Wilt met with a broker and posted the failed restaurant for sale. She admitted the business is nearly $10,000 behind on its electric bill and has been foreclosed on.The restaurant was featured on the Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible” in July and heavily focused on Wilt's apparent verbal abuse of her employees. But Wilt denies ever using demeaning words with her staff and thought her employees might have been coached into saying certain things by the show's producers.After the show aired, Wilt expressed her disappointment in the experience: "The way they portrayed me is not who I am."There were repercussions and “a lot of negativity” from being on the show, Wilt said, adding “business has gotten so bad, I could never pull it back.”The decision to participate in the show “was bad judgment,” she said. “I thought it would go another way.”At the time it closed last week, the Kalico Kitchen had four employees, Wilt said. It was doing about $100 to $120 per day in business.Wilt said she’s trying to save her home, which is financially attached to the foreclosed restaurant. She has six months to clear things up with the bank or sell the restaurant, she said.Between the roughly $800 in fees to the health department, the thousands owed to the electric company and the back payments on the mortgage, Wilt said there is no way she can reopen the restaurant and hopes it sells quickly.“My bank account is dry,” she said.— Follow this reporter on Facebook or Twitter, @SentinelNetty.